Bush or Kerry?

[Kristina]

Ok, this really should go back on topic but I just need to clear up some things beforehand because there's some misinformation floating around here.

1. Supreme Court Justices are neither Democratic or Republican. Those are political parties and judges are supposed to be non-partisan. Of course, they do lean certain way in ideologies. Which brings me to...

2. Besides the fact that President's don't pick someone from their party because of the aforementioned fact, they don't necessarily pick someone with their own ideology. There are 7 Republican-President appointed Justices: Rehnquist (Nixon), Stevens (Ford), O'Conner, Scalia, Kennedy (Reagan), and Souter and Thomas (Bush Sr.). There are 2 Democrat-President appointed Justices: Ginsberg and Breyer. However there's hardly ever been a vote that's been 7-2 favoring conservatives. Why in the world does this happen? Well, a lot has to do with the fact that the Senate has to confirm the nominees so justices aren't straight party line with the President who nominated them. So having a shift in Presidency won't dramatically affect the Supreme Court depending on who's in control of the Senate.

3. Where one would get the notion that we have a Democratic (or even liberal) Supreme Court is a little puzzling to me. This Supreme Court article along with many other articles about court rulings all generally say that Rehnquist, Scalia, Kennedy, and Thomas are typically conservative leaning, Stevens, Souter, Ginsberg, and Breyer are typically liberally leaning and O'Connor's a swing voter that based on history, usually leans right.

Sorry for the government lesson. I DO believe this election is important, but less so for the Supreme Court element.

[Adam Y.]

The difficulty of making this an actual amendment, coupled with overwhelming opposition (myself being one), didn't stop them.

Actually it probably be possible to get the 2/3's of the states. It would probably die in Congress though.

[Bill Gold]

Originally Posted by Adam Y.

Actually it probably be possible to get the 2/3's of the states. It would probably die in Congress though.

Everyone (since I've seen this mistake repeatedly, and I'm nitpicky):
Please check the constitution or your history books. It's requires ratification by 3/4's of the states to pass a constitutional amendment, not 2/3's. The 2/3's that you're thinking of is generally the first step of passing a constitutional amendment; the percentage of each house of the federal legislature needed to pass the proposed amendment. Although, there's another 2/3's that you could be thinking of which is the other possible first step in passing a constitutional amendment; the 2/3's of state legislatures calling a Constitutional Convention and passing a proposed constitutional amendment. In any case, the ratification by 3/4's of the states is necessary to pass a constitutional amendment.